


let the fever strike let the force of it rock you

by handschuhmaus



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-23
Updated: 2015-10-29
Packaged: 2018-07-25 14:37:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7536640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/handschuhmaus/pseuds/handschuhmaus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Plagueis and Sidious, in the mountains...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [miz_blue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/miz_blue/gifts).



Hego Damask glanced at the human as their train slowed to start up a grade. In slumber all anger faded from his features and it was especially obvious that he was still quite young. Not precisely a child, certainly, but he had not yet seen two decades. The Muun thought about this.

Only a few minutes later, the train jerked as it slowed to a halt, and Palpatine’s eyes blinked rapidly open. He regarded Damask warily. “What are you staring at me for?” he asked, with just enough deference that it was not a demand.

“I wasn’t,” Hego contradicted him. Uncharacteristically, his expression softened and he explained–“You look quite young in your sleep.”

“Do I?” the youth rejoined, with a slight sting of sarcasm about the words. He did not like the observation. Perhaps it was to be expected–it was not as if Cosinga Palpatine had ever really given him trust or adult responsibility. And when he had been allowed to pilot a speeder, a certain amount of recklessness had been involved, whether for carelessness or callousness.

“We’re in the mountains,” Palpatine stated with some surprise, staring rapt out the train window at tree lined peaks in the distance and the cut rock mere yards from the track.

“Yes,” Hego allowed, uncertainly. He peered at the rocks himself for a second, wondering at the colors of the layers, before saying anything further. “There are–places rarely visited by any intelligent life within these hills.”

“They’re not hills,” the young man insisted. “Those are mountains, Magister Damask, and–” he glanced around the car to see if anyone could overhear, but their only companions were a snoring elderly Rodian in the extreme other end of the car, an unaccompanied Nemoidian minor whose music was far too loud for the benefit of her ears, and a member of a reptilian race deaf to human speech registers who appeared to be perusing the local market’s coupon circular. “I don’t know exactly what you want with such privacy here.”

“I should have thought you wanted it,” Hego simpered, while reflecting internally on this brief burst of self-protectiveness. “After all, your father is hardly likely to find you in such a place, yes?”

He swallowed hard, and looked anywhere but toward the Muun. “Yes,” he assented, “but–” I do not want it at the cost of finding in you another household tyrant like him, Hego filled in.

The train stopped before Palpatine explained whatever his objection had been going to be, and Hego stood, for they were to disembark here.

“I think you may better appreciate the scenery from the passenger side,” Plagueis commented as they neared the hired vehicle for the next stage of the excursion.

This was more true than usual; this particular model of speeder allowed near panoramic views from the passenger seat. But the unvoicable thought ran through the Muun’s head that letting the youth drive might represent a risk, that he did not quite trust the boy not to swing too rapidly round a hairpin curve…


	2. Chapter 2

The thought came back to the Muun not ten minutes later, as the lane traversed a rocky valley to approach the peak they were headed for, and young-for he was-Palpatine, voiced a taut, “Please,” just as branches and vines struck the exterior of the vehicle as he veered to closely to a tree.

But he was not entirely sulking, at least, and seemed slightly enraptured by the scale of the land here. If cities carved of ice made beings arrogant, these untamed mountains could humble them. It was not simply the sheer size of the landscape, mountains which a human would take at least the better part of a day to climb, if on an established trail, but to an educated individual, the geological timeframe. Upthrusts and layers of every color of stone–Plagueis was no geologist, nor mineralogist and could not identify them–reassuringly covered here and there in a forest carpet of yet feral plant life.

The human gave no indication that he recognized or was thinking this in parallel, but it did seem likely that Naboo schooling did not concentrate on natural sciences. And was Palpatine really an interested student? Hego was suddenly shaken by the realization anew that his likely intended apprentice was an entirely different individual than he and -not that they were important to Sith-might not share his enthusiasm for such things as midichlorians and peculiar lifeforms. He seemed keen enough, and certainly the Sith would benefit by varied individuals, but the Muun’s emotions had leaped miles ahead and already had him as an eager confidante and partner in more matters than might really pique the youth’s interest.

His mind, too, was miles away and he swerved away from a boulder in their path so belatedly that the hovercraft spun on its cushion of air and set them facing some 100 degrees away from the heading of the road.

“You didn’t want me to drive, did you?” Palpatine asked, with long-suffering irritation.

“It’s not broken, I just need to concentrate more on the road, rather than other thoughts,” Hego informed the human, not really concentrating on what he was saying.

“Hmph. Most people can think and drive at the same time,” he remarked, then suddenly turned angry, “You’re not trying to demonstrate carelessness, are you? Because I’ve had enough of that.”

“Force, no,” Damask replied, and began to joke before he could reconsider: “If that were an intentional demonstration it would have looked much less like an accident; I can’t imitate negligence convincingly.”  
The teenager rolled his eyes, as, Hego was informed, teenagers the galaxy over were wont to do. “Would you please drive more carefully? And where are we going? Surely we’re not going to drive all afternoon?”

“Up this mountain,” was the answer Plagueis had for him. He wondered now if it was a good decision, what he would actually learn about the human from it.

“Do you enjoy contemplating views, then, Magister Damask? My–” he seemed to debate actually acknowledging his paternity, “father doesn’t. No one, he says, learns anything from staring into chaos.” He gave every indication that he did not agree, considered the sentiment foolish rather than citing it as a heartfelt lesson.

Hego was reminded of his own master’s rare stories of his master and her philosophies and feats, of “peering into darkness, turning your back to the light,” though whether this was more than an untested recipe for avoiding the undesirable contraction of one’s pupils he was not sure, not that that would much apply to Bith. “I would hardly consider it unorderly. Did you ever consider the patterns snowflakes take, or the array of useful chemicals in some leaves? Of course, my views may differ from yours…”

Palpatine gave him a curious but not wholly unappreciative look at what had turned around and become a pun. “Cosinga,” he named him uneasily, “does not think nature is beautiful, but savage.”

“But you,” Plagueis asked, “What do you think?”…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Original tags: #another installment: puns! Tenebrous and Cosinga hcs! #hypocritical attitudes about driving Hego being a NERD XD idk. #Maybe it's an acceptable installment #actually I should be writing stuff about Amer History but I currently don't have the processing capacity
> 
> Originally here: http://rugessnome.tumblr.com/post/132185107968/let-the-fever-strike-let-the-force-of-it-rock-you


End file.
